


Turning the Other Way

by ShadeofGreen



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Minor Character Death, Sibling Theory, Spoilers, poor communication kills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 03:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16526537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeofGreen/pseuds/ShadeofGreen
Summary: In a horrible case of 20/20 hindsight, everyone living can agree all of this could have been avoided.(Or, the Goro-Futaba Sibling Theory with a terrible twist).





	Turning the Other Way

**Author's Note:**

> Normally, the Goro-Futaba Sibling Theory relies on them being related via Shido (as both take after their mother- Futaba is obvious, and Goro is referenced by Shadow!Shido). Due to a misunderstanding of something I read, I decided to run with said misunderstanding into an au fic of sorts (which I'll explain at the end notes). Please excuse any grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes, and canon mistaken facts. 
> 
> (Also, I'm not trying to pin the blame on Goro's mother at all in the fic, despite things pointing otherwise.)  
> (Slight Update lol: got rid of repetitive sentence.)

The task was simple. Get Isshiki’s Shadow to go berserk in order to tarnish her image. That way, when she becomes discredited, Shido’s men can steal her cognitive research. Well, in truth, the task was actually to kill Isshiki’s Shadow, but Goro lied to Shido’s face and decided to just make it go psychotic.

Goro didn’t want to be a murderer like his father. Goro knows how it can ruin lives. All he has to do and visit his mother. Besides, it worked for all the others.

The Shadow was surprising calm and collect, paying no mind to the footsteps approaching her. Isshiki was mumbling to herself, about numbers and data, all related to cognition. Goro was seconds away from summoning Loki when she decided to turn around.

Isshiki’s expression was unexpected, to say the least. Full of confusion and anger, no doubt for interrupting her, it soon transformed into warmth, love, and happiness. Isshiki gave a smile, and soon walked over to Goro, her arms out and open, like she was going to give him a hug.

“Oh Goro…you grew so much!”

What.

“How many years since we last saw each other?”

This wasn’t making any sense.

“Oh! The last time I saw you, you were just a small three year old child!”

Goro quickly raised his gun, stopping Wakaba in her track. The smile turned into a frown, her yellow eyes narrowing. No one said anything for a full minute.

“Goro…” Isshiki dropped her arms. “Goro, don’t you remember me?”

“Am I supposed to?”

“Yes.” Isshiki took a step closer, her hands close to her chest. “Goro, don’t you know who I am?”

“If you’re supposed to be a friend of my mom, you got a lot of nerves to tell it to my face. And here in Mementos of all places…” Goro took a step towards Isshiki’s Shadow.

“A friend of your mother?” Isshiki brought her hands to her mouth.

“You heard me. If you think you can play the family friend card, you should have played it long ago after she died! No… _before_ she died,” Goro said bitterly, the word full of poison. “Having a family friend could have changed everything!”

“ _Died_? Goro, listen to me -”

“No!” Goro felt his finger on the trigger. He was close to giving Shido want he wanted. And Goro didn’t want that at all. “Why should I? You don’t know a damn thing about me or my mom!”

Isshiki didn’t say anything. All she did was took a step closer. “Then tell me. Tell me what you remember about your mother.”

Goro shouldn’t have given into the shadow’s wishes, but he did. Lowering the gun, Goro spoke to her, peacefully. “I remember that she was beautiful. Beautiful, smart…she was also alone. No one wanted to associate with her due to giving birth to me. A bastard child…you don’t know how many times people told me I was the reason she took her own life! How if I wasn’t born, she would still be alive?”

Isshiki looked away in shame. “I can imagine. Words can do so much to a person.”

“No kidding.” Goro gave a scoff. “In fact, words got to her so much, she decided to end it all, and abandoned me. I know it wasn’t her fault. It was that no good lover of her! He left her and me because he didn’t want to deal with the fact he couldn’t keep it in his pants and take responsible for his mistake!”

“…But you’re going to make him take responsible, aren’t you? That’s why you’re here. No child would do anything like this if it wasn't someone they hated so much; they wanted to take them down by any means. You want justice for your mother, don’t you? You want it so much, you'll be willing to destroy your soul?"

Goro didn’t say anything. All he did was raised his gun once again. Like before, Isshiki took a step closer. The two were now a foot apart from each other.

“I do. And you’re just one of the many obstacles standing in my way.” Goro’s finger was still on the trigger, pointing the gun to her chest.

“Goro, I’m sorry for what happened to you. But listen to me. She's-”

**BANG!**

Both Goro and Isshiki’s mouth were opened. Isshiki’s was opened because she didn’t expect Goro to shoot her. She looked down at the small hole in her chest. Raising her head up, she took one last look at Goro, tears were swelling up in the shadow’s eyes. Her hand out, Isshiki tried to reach out to him before dropping dead.

Goro’s was opened because he couldn’t believe he pulled the trigger. He was just tired of the woman’s attempts of trying to falsely connect with him.As Goro ran out of Mementos, horrify , he left the gun behind. _It was an accident, it was an accident._

At least, that's what Goro told himself. Either way, he knew a line was cross. But if it was for the sake of his mother, then so be it. 

~~~

“ **Did you knew?!** ”

Morgana couldn’t help but overhear Futaba and Sojiro arguing. He just came to the Sakura’s household to snoop on the family (Morgana missed the family) and visit Futaba when all of sudden, there was sudden shouting. Being careful and sneaky, Morgana walked to the edge of the stairs, where he saw the father and daughter argue. Hands were up, scowls were given. Futaba and Sojiro were seconds away from crying.

“I swear Futaba, Wakaba never told me! If she did-”

“You probably would have kept it a secret regardless! After all, if Mom didn’t bother to tell me, why should you?”

“If I knew, not only I would have intervened, I would have told you the second I took you in! Hell, I would have taken you both in! What I want to know is, did he know?”

Futaba looked away from the man, her head lowered to the ground. “No. Akechi didn’t know. Everyone could tell he sincerely believed what he said to be true. Even though we were thrown off by Shido's Shadow, Sae got confirmation from Shido himself about what really happened. But don’t you get it? Akechi _died without even knowing the truth_!”

The last sentence was spoken harshly, and soon, Futaba quickly made her way up the stairs. It forced Morgana to retreat to her bedroom and play dumb. There was no way he wanted to get yell at. As he retreated, Morgana heard the girl’s final words, full of rage, guilt, and sadness.

“If Akechi knew the truth, everything could have turned out different. He and mom would still be alive. None of the last few years would have happened.”

~~~

If you ask Masayoshi Shido if he was parent material, he’ll just laugh at your face. He has no paternal instinct in his body. If there was some paternal bone, it was weak and brittle, and no doubt it was an appendix; there in his body without a purpose, just waiting to explode. Besides, how can he be a parent if he has no child?

However, reflecting in his time in prison, there was maybe one moment Shido was the father Akechi needed. It may have been the only good thing Shido ever done for his kid.

It was after Akechi took out Wakaba Isshiki. With her Shadow dead, it was only a matter of time before Wakaba herself would die herself in the real world. Akechi was shaken, silent, not paying attention to what Shido was saying. It was grating, and Shido got Akechi to explain his behavior.

As it turns out, Wakaba’s Shadow tried to connect with Akechi. Akechi didn’t say how, only that they supposedly met before. Shido didn’t press the issue. Instead, Shido did something unexpected. Standing up, Shido walked right to the door and opened it wide open.

“Akechi, I think you should take week off. This assignment was too much for you.”

“But-”

“You have no say on the matter. Try to be a normal teenage for the time being. Recuperate yourself. We’ll continue with our work later.”

“Yes, sir.”

Akechi slowly shuffled his feet out the office door.

“And Akechi?”

Akechi turned back to face Shido.

“It’s best to ignore what Wakaba told you. What she said doesn’t matter now.”

As Akechi once again slowly made his way out, Shido closed the door behind him. Heading back to his chair, the man took off his orange-tinted glasses and sighed. Not long after that, Shido pulled out his cellphone, and made a few phone calls in preparations for Wakaba’s last note to her daughter.

Looking back at it, Shido hurting Futaba was really his way on getting back at Wakaba. And honestly, Shido couldn’t care about Futaba. She wasn’t his flesh and blood. All he could think about is how Goro –his son- is dead, and it’s all because of himself.

Had Shido not left, Wakaba would have done right by Goro all those years ago, and none of this would have happened.

**Author's Note:**

> The misunderstanding came from reading a confession from a persona confession blog. Being tired in the dead of night, I read a line of the confession of about the sibling theory, 'kill her mom', as 'kill their mom'. Needless to say, this fic doesn't even do the misunderstanding justice because there'll be broken trust, broken pedestal, conflicted feelings, and re-evaluation of everything.


End file.
